Terrorism

Leader’s Death Is Another Blow for ISIS, but It’s Hardly the End

BEIRUT, Lebanon — For a man who sought to disappear, the leader of the Islamic State seemed to have done everything right. He hid out far from where his enemies expected. He never left the house, relying on trusted couriers to communicate with his far-flung underlings. He was the group’s only leader to never issue […]

Neighbors Recall Night of Fear in Syria Raid That Killed ISIS Leader

ATMEH, Syria — The neighbors had never heard anything like it. The sudden roar of attack helicopters woke up the families living in a pastoral patch of northwestern Syria after midnight. They huddled in basements, storerooms and bedrooms. “What’s happening, Dad?” a neighbor, Abu Omar, recalled his son asking. A voice speaking Arabic blared from […]

Biden Administration Rejects Use of Testimony Obtained From Torture in Guantánamo Trial

Mr. Nashiri’s lawyers were exploring a potential defense theory that the United States had already killed plotters of the Cole attack who were more senior and more culpable. The prosecutors asked the judge to end that line of inquiry, pointing to a classified cable that said Mr. Nashiri had told C.I.A. agents as he was […]

U.S. Woman Accused of Prominent Role in Islamic State

Witnesses said Ms. Fluke-Ekren taught classes for members of the battalion, and on one occasion, a young child of hers was seen holding a machine gun. More than 100 women and girls received training from her, one witness said. Ms. Fluke-Ekren had hoped to create a cadre of suicide bombers who could infiltrate enemies’ positions, […]

ISIS Siege of Syria Prison Proves It’s Still a Threat

BEIRUT, Lebanon — One week after Islamic State fighters attacked a prison in northeastern Syria, where they have held out despite a heavy assault by a Kurdish-led militia backed by the United States, the terrorist organization published its version of what had gone down. In its official magazine, it mocked how many times in its […]

India’s Militarized Nagaland Calls for End to Army Impunity

OTING, India — Technically, there is no war anymore in Nagaland, but the peace does not feel certain, either. What the remote northeastern Indian state has is a lot of soldiers, keeping a heavy hand and provoking a rising anger among residents who say change is long overdue. Those tensions boiled over in December near […]

As ISIS Resurges, US is Drawn Back Into the Fray

BAGHDAD, Iraq — An audacious attack on a prison housing thousands of former ISIS fighters in Syria. A series of strikes against military forces in neighboring Iraq. And a horrific video harking back to the grimmest days of the insurgency that showed the beheading of an Iraqi police officer. The evidence of a resurgence of […]

Burkina Faso President Ousted in Military Coup

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — The military seized power in Burkina Faso on Monday, ousting the country’s democratically elected president after mutinous soldiers stormed his home, in the latest of a series of military coups in African countries struggling to beat back a rising tide of Islamist violence. President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, 64, had been […]

A Tense Texas Standoff Leads to Emotional Phone Call Between Brothers

BLACKBURN, England — The conversation was urgent and emotional as Gulbar Akram huddled with police in Manchester, England, on Saturday and spoke with his brother, who was holding four people hostage at a synagogue almost 5,000 miles away in Texas. He urged his brother, Malik Faisal Akram, to release the hostages and turn himself in, […]